We have gathered up the gang for another canalboating trip, this time in Scotland, in the later fall. The boat will be a broad-beam narrowboat, rented from ABC Boat Hire. Half of us will be old “pros”, and half of us will be newbies. Weather could be cold and wet, but we expect the boat to be warm and comfortable regardless.
We get to ride the Falkirk Wheel twice, and expect to spend a night in Edinburgh, and also spend a night in Glasglow. We will see where we end up for our intermediate nights.
Our Route
Original goal was to go to Edinburgh, then Glasgow and back to Falkirk. But our boat is extra slow, and we want to do stuff en route, and also have time to explore Edinburgh. So we trimmed things back to just Edinburgh, even to the extent of spending two nights there.
Unlike all the other canal boat trips I have done, there is no Nicolson’s guide for these canals. Instead, there is an online PDF, the Scottish Canals Lowland Skippers Guide. Click HERE to download.
For the most part, in September, the sun rises at 7:15 AM and sets at 6:50 PM. This will give us a maximum 12 hours travel time per day. This is more than enough if we occastionally get moving in the early morning. We have 6 full days of canal boating, and two half days (first and last).
A link to a dynamic Union Canal Map is HERE.
Here is another web page that describes our trip Falkirk to Edinburgh (and return) in 4 days
Falkirk Wheel
I hope to replace this video with my own!
Our Boat, Sanderling (60ft broadbeam Narrowboat)
This boat is WAY wider than the 6’10” of a true narrowboat. We are expecting luxury. We are going to have to juggle the accomodations to fit 8 people… More details from ABC (what is included etc.) can be found HERE. Bizarrely, there are almost no photos of this boat from the outside. The ones on the ABC web page are of a regular narrowboat.
